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Not sure if I had enough space in my headline to say exactly what I wanted to say.
Basically, I was thinking of metro areas around the country that one would want to live with their family. Some have a core city that is safe, with decent enough public schools that one would have no problem moving their family to, while others one would only live in the suburbs, not the core city.
For example:
Manchester NH - The city itself has fairly low crime and decent enough schools, so I'd have no problem moving to the city. It's true for Portland, Maine, Burlington, VT and probably Worcester, MA
Hartford, CT - The city's crime is too high. Even if we could move to a decent neighborhood, we'd be at the mercy of poor public schools. I'd only live in a suburb if I had to move there.
Boston and NYC - I'm not sure about these cities. I think there are large parts of NYC I'd happily move my family to and send my kid to the local public schools. Boston...I'm not sure.
For both cities, I'd happily live in their suburbs, though.
I'm purposely asking this question for families because as a single, I'd live in most cities, even the dangerous ones. I don't think I'm alone in that regard.
Lots of people do it in NYC, the public school system has over 1 million students. And It's certainly possible in most big cities, but schools are usually the biggest issue. COL, space, and perception of safety are also up there from people I've spoken to about kids in the city (at least in Manhattan).
I have a partner and no kids and we are city people all the way, but if we ever had human children (we have pet children), I would definitely consider a suburb near the city, mostly because of space.
If the city is rich or has been booming for a couple of decades, yes. All of those cities will have good living conditions in the city. Think Denver, Minneapolis, Dallas, Orlando, etc. But poorer and stagnant cities, probably not. Think New Orleans, Memphis, Cleveland, Birmingham, etc. They are exceptions to both but that's my general opinion.
I wouldn't live in DC with a family. I work in Farragut Square and even far away from the gentrification line there's now homeless people on many of the park benches, at the subway station entrance, at the McDonalds entrance literally a 1 minute walk from the White House. McPherson Square smells like pee. Renwick Gallery entrance has a man who just takes up the entire bench there and stares at the ground.
And this isn't even the bad part. Even Arlington has started to regress recently. Rosslyn Town Center is now full of homeless and the McDonalds there at any given point has 5 homeless people sleeping or charging their phones or using the bathroom to do drugs.
Even a lot of inner suburbia is now turning a blind eye to the obvious decay. For DC now, Fairfax County is the closest in I'd love to the city, somewhere like Annandale or Rose Hill that's close enough to the city for the perks, but without the ease of access that's causing Alexandria and Arlington to become less desirable. And the schools in both are really bad now: constant fights, mold, lack of enforcement so kids do what they want.
For a really good school system, you'd need Loudoun or Northern Prince William County schools now.
I wouldn't live in DC with a family. I work in Farragut Square and even far away from the gentrification line there's now homeless people on many of the park benches, at the subway station entrance, at the McDonalds entrance literally a 1 minute walk from the White House. McPherson Square smells like pee. Renwick Gallery entrance has a man who just takes up the entire bench there and stares at the ground.
You do realize there's more to DC than the area around the National Mall, right? I mean you sound like a tourist. The entire Northwest sector is quite desirable minus the issues you mention with now A-rated schools primarily. Once white flight was reversed many things started improving, including the public schools.
I would raise kids only in the suburbs if the city was Detroit, Philadelphia, Baltimore, St. Louis — of the cities I know at least something about. Chicago, San Fran, DC, and NYC (obviously) I’d go to the city. Maybe Minneapolis/St Paul.
Could go either way, suburbs or city, with Boston, Atlanta, Seattle.
Don’t know enough about day-to-day life in most Sunbelt, mountain West, or other Midwest cities to make a choice. It’s more than just public schools that would be determinative though. Overall QOL would count most.
I'd never have a family; but I wouldn't have a problem raising a kid in the core of any city. To start, I wouldn't want to shield my kid from the world; nor would I want my kid to take my life over. Moreover, the kids who are raised in cities end up being empathetic, grounded, well rounded and cool people with smarts and street sense; in my experience, black and white. Sure you get the spectrum of personalities depending on where you are, but this idea that your kids are going to turn out either like the kids of "Kids" (im showing my age) or some wigger or some drug addict or whatever people think is laughable.
It really all depends on the neighborhood, and that is true of the suburbs, there are many suburbs I wouldn't raise my kid in.
In my city there are some suburbs that struggle with drug abuse and addiction in their youth population; and in many respects a lot of that is due to being in the suburbs. Being rich in the burbs is cool, but being middle/lower middle class is isolating, soulless, cultureless and opens kids up to the type of thing i'm talking about. And then to top it off, many of those kids end up infatuated with the city and run after it, sometimes unprepared and to detrimental effect....
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